Hi everyone!
I hope you all have been enjoying this long weekend! We have a crazy busy week this week! Keep reading for more information:
Math MCAS: We will be taking our final round of MCAS tomorrow, Tuesday, June 1st! Please be sure that your child completely powers down and charges their Chromebook overnight. Our snack time tomorrow will be later than usual, so it is important that your child eats a filling breakfast!
Field Day: Third graders will have their field day time on Thursday, June 3rd from 12-2. Students should come prepared with a water bottle, sneakers and comfy clothes, and sunscreen! I sent an email with color assignments on Friday and will send home a reminder with students tomorrow as well.
Mock Town Meeting: Our upcoming virtual Mock Town Meeting will also be on Thursday, June 3rd. Families are invited to log in and quietly watch our town meeting happen beginning at 8:40 am on Zoom. Students will be encouraged to dress up but should prepare to bring a change of clothes for field day in the afternoon!
Menotomy Day: Starting soon, we will be learning about life in Pre-Revolutionary Boston. Every year to celebrate our learning in a hands-on way, we typically organize a bunch of events and activities that allow students to "experience" what life was like back in the 1700's for different groups of people living around Massachusetts. While this year will look a bit different, we are still excited to plan lots of outdoor activities. We will be looking for parent volunteers to help out with running and organizing some of these activities and gathering materials. Please look out for an email later this week with more information about these volunteering opportunities.
Here's a peek into what we've been doing in our classroom lately:
Math: We began our second unit on multiplication and division last week. We are learning how to use facts we already know to figure out trickier ones. We also began playing some new games to help us learn all of the facts from 0-10. One of the end of year third grade math benchmarks is to be fluent in multiplication facts from 0-10 so it would be great if this practice could continue at home! Click here to play Missing Factors and Factor Pairs with your child at home as extra practice!
Writing: We've been working hard to add the finishing touches to our speeches for Thursday's Mock Town Meeting. Our class is arguing for Arlington's need of more trash cans and stricter fines for those who litter. Students have been working to evoke emotion in their audience, use specific examples, and organize their speeches in a clear way. I'm excited for them to be able to share their hard work with all of you!
Reading: Students have continued working in their book clubs to complete different jobs like Discussion Director, Word Detective, Super Summarizer, Artful Artist, and Character Cop. I've been so impressed by the conversations everyone has been having about their books and how responsible they have all been about completing their assignments and staying on track during meeting times. Next week, they're going to have some increased independence as each student will have their own job to complete for each meeting!
Social Studies: Students worked in groups to learn about Plimoth Colony and then Massachusetts Bay Colony. They made great posters about different topics relating to each colony and then studied the differences between the colonies. Students studied the challenges, adult roles, children's lives, homes, and general facts about each colony. They celebrated their research by presenting their posters to the class!
Science: We started learning about forces, specifically magnetism and gravity. Students worked in groups to explore different ways magnets interact with each other and with paper clips. We will continue on with this investigation by creating our own engineered tools!
That's all for now! Have a great, short week!
Ms. McLellan